NASA Ground Command Center.

The president's roar echoed in the conference room next door.

"Fack! What a bunch of rubbish! ”

"If there's going to be a sandstorm there, why did you choose this terrible time to send our colonists?!"

Looking at the president who was angry, the people standing in the conference room were silent, and they didn't dare to take a breath, for fear of being angered.

Director Carson, in particular, had an embarrassed look on his face at this moment.

This was completely unexpected.

After all, he is not God, how can he know when a sandstorm will happen on Mars......

"Mr. President...... We don't have a weather observatory on Mars, and while I understand your feelings, we don't know in advance about the climate change on Mars. And ......"

After a pause, Director Carson said in a difficult tone.

"Generally speaking, the most frequent period of dust storms is summer, especially global dust storms, which rarely occur outside of summer...... It's completely out of our control that things like this will happen, although we have considered the coping strategy......"

The president stared at him and asked aggressively.

"What's the coping strategy?"

"But there were some minor surprises," Director Carson said, with an embarrassed expression, "and our original plan was to establish methane and groundwater resource collection points and use resources on Mars to deal with this problem." You know, as long as there are enough external input resources, it's not a problem at all to get through this period of illumination and reduction, but ......"

"But?"

Swallowing his saliva, Director Carson continued quickly, "But our colonists have just landed on Mars, and they are not ready to collect methane and water resources on Mars. And the methane reserves carried from the Earth...... It doesn't last long. ”

To put it bluntly, they didn't even think that they would encounter such a harsh climate in the second week after landing.

Martian global dust storms, although difficult to predict through astronomical observations, can be estimated. According to statistics, it only happens once every 3 Martian years on average, which translates to 5.5 Earth years.

The last global dust storm was in 2018, and now it has only been 3 Earth years, and it stands to reason that they still have a window to use to transfer the Hohmann orbit, and even if there is an accident, they can use this window to send enough survival materials to help the colonists tide over the difficulties.

However......

No one expected that this time Mars did not play its cards according to common sense, and only three years later, another sandstorm swept the entire planet. From the ground astronomical observatory, the entire planet has turned into a reddish giant egg, and even a ray of sunlight cannot penetrate the surface......

Solar power plants don't work, and that's not even the worst.

The worst part is that their growing area has just been aerated and unfolded, and the plants need sunlight to grow.

Now the colonists are left with only two options: either dispose of all the freshly sprouted crops or use the small reserves of energy to generate electricity to provide them with sunlight.

Either way, it's a tough one.

"Why didn't you think about this before!" Looking at Director Carson, who explained to him, the president said angrily, "I made it clear in my speech at the White House that if we can't guarantee the safety of 100% of our colonists, we'd rather not send people up!" ”

Carson: "Sir......"

The president glared at him and said, "Do you have any questions?" Mr. Carson. ”

"Yes, you did," Director Carson said, swallowing at the mouth and spitting, "but you said the same thing in the closed-door meeting...... At all costs, we must establish our superiority in the space race as soon as possible. ”

The expression on the president's face suddenly stiffened a little, and he touched his nose in embarrassment, coughed lightly and said.

"Did I say that?"

The vice president, who was standing next to him, nodded silently.

"I remember you saying that...... The minutes of the meeting can testify. ”

Anyway, the position of vice president in the White House is also a mascot, and he doesn't really need to give the president face. What's more, he is the head of the reorganized National Space Committee, and he certainly doesn't want this pot to end up on his head.

His face was a little unbearable, and the president said with a straight face.

"None of this is the point, and no matter what I've said, I ask you to reconsider your countermeasures now! Especially you, Director Carson! ”

Suddenly called his name, Carson subconsciously straightened his back.

"Yes!"

In an unquestionable tone, the president ordered.

"Within 24 hours, I need you to come up with a plan, and then implement it within 72 hours. I don't care what method you use, we must ensure the safety of our astronauts, at least keep them alive! ”

"If you can't do it, you know the consequences."

Cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and Carson replied stiffly.

"Yes......"

……

【New Virginia!】 Light of humanity! 】

"These people are really optimistic."

Looking at the news pop-up window on the computer screen, Lu Zhou shook his head with a smile.

During the lunch break, in the office of the dean of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, Lu Zhou drank coffee as usual while brushing up on the papers he usually accumulated.

At this time, I saw this news from the pop-up window.

"It seems that Space-X has really invested a lot of money, and the advertorials have been hit on internationally renowned academic forums."

However, it seems that this is indeed the case with the current trend of public opinion.

Since the BFS spacecraft successfully dropped the landing capsule, New Virginia has become a dream land, especially with the broadcast of the "Mars Diaries" program, the entire Ares project has been blown into the sky......

The North American media now seems to have moved away from the term "space race" and focused instead on the colonists' families, friends, and the 30-minute videos that were released every once in a while.

Lu Zhou is also a loyal "fan" of "Mars Diary", and he will never miss every episode of the show.

After all, if you want to beat your opponents, you must first understand them.

Although he felt that Musk sometimes bragged too much when he was in North America before, there is no doubt that others have real skills.

At least, for now, the BFR rocket is already at the top of the chemical propulsion method, and there is room for further improvement.

And that life support unit......

Therefore, in addition to the hit "Mars Diary", Lu Zhou will also ask the FAST project team of the Qianzhou Radio Astronomy Observatory to monitor the electromagnetic wave signals from Mars in real time through the Lunar Orbit Construction Committee, and send him a copy of the monitored data and hand it over to Xiao Ai for cracking.

While it's not easy to decipher, and not all of the information is unraveled, it's a good way to get news from the colony of "New Virginia".

If the situation is optimistic, you may be able to get some pretty critical information.

For example, resource exploration in some areas of Mars......

Just when Lu Zhou closed the webpage and was about to end his lunch break, a pop-up window popped up in the lower right corner.

[Master, the number 0001 file signal has been decrypted!] Take a look at Baa ψ ('∇ ́) ψ now]

Looking at Xiao Ai, who was naughtily waving the little devil's fork, Lu Zhou said with a smile.

"Well, pack it up and send it to my desktop...... By the way, what about the cracking of other files? ”

[It's not done yet, they use different encryption methods for each communication, and it takes a certain amount of time to crack it...... （； ´д｀）ゞ】

"It's okay, just take your time, I'm not in a hurry here."

[Hmm! Xiao Ai will come on! (≧∀≦)ゞ】

Although Xiao Ai is smart enough, he is not omnipotent after all.

Even with the help of a supercomputer, it is difficult to crack the communication with professional technology encryption.

Document 0001 is the first communication signal between the Golden Heart and NASA ground command center after its arrival on Mars, and it has been two weeks since it was monitored and collected by the FAST project team.

Lu Zhou simply scanned the cracked content in the document quickly, as expected, it was all messages such as "report safety" or "apply for a task", and he didn't see too much nutritious content.

Just as Lu Zhou was about to archive the documents to the USB flash drive, there was a sudden knock on the door.

Closing the folder on the desktop, Lu Zhou cleared his throat and spoke.

"Please come in."

The door opened, and it was Hou Guang who entered.

I saw a serious expression on his face, and he didn't even say a word of greeting, so he spoke.

"There is new news from the Qianzhou Radio Astronomy Observatory, they found something unusual when they made direct observations of Mars."

Lu Zhou leaned back in his office chair, frowned and asked, "...... Stuff? ”

"It's a global sandstorm!"

……

(Thank you to the book friend "Yongteng" for the league leader's reward~~~ The trip is over, it's time to come back to code words)